Why Did Dwan Challenge Die? Cates Says Dwan Gambled Too Much

For the past six years, high-stakes phenom Dan Cates has been trying to revive his online poker challenge with Tom Dwan. Dubbed the Dwan Challenge, the two completed around 20,000 of the scheduled 50,000 hands in 2010 and ’11.

Now, Cates says the reason why the challenge was never completed is because Dwan “gambled beyond his means.”

“I’m not happy how it has gone, but I am trying to resolve things with Tom,” Cates told CardPlayer. “[Dwan] has been somewhat cooperative. He’s been in a bit of trouble and I guess gambled beyond his means or something. He’s been busy with some pretty big stuff lately. I hope that we get it resolved this year. I don’t think it was a scam or ever intended on being one.”

Cates is referring to what Doug Polk said, believing the idea that the Dwan Challenge can resume again is a scam. We don’t know what Cates has to gain by lying about the challenge resuming, beyond publicity. Perhaps Polk used the word scam to mean that he doesn’t think there’s any chance of the challenge being revived.

In any case, ‘Jungleman’ has plenty of motivation to finish the deal. He’s set to win an extra $1.5 million if he beats Dwan in the 50k-hand challenge; Dwan would win $500k if he defeats Cates. Currently, Jungleman is up over $1.2 million after 20k hands.

“I’m working with Tom to either finish it this year or get a bunch of hands done this year, or just have it resolved this year,” said Cates. “He’s still agreeing to pay me some penalties, and I guess if he doesn’t want to do that he’ll have to forfeit or something like that.”

When the two last played, they were on Full Tilt Poker’s $200/$400 no-limit hold’em tables. Full Tilt has since been absorbed into PokerStars and no longer offers games above $25/$50. So the Dwan Challenge would have to be completed on PokerStars if it resumes.

With the challenge still not finished, Cates has taken to calling Dwan out, even labeling him a degenerate. But now, it at least seems that the two sides are close to working something out.